Our eight-year-old son wants to write the President. “He needs to get a law passed that will make it illegal to throw cigarette butts out of car windows.” I told him that littering was already illegal. “What?!” In his mind, littering must be legal if everybody does it. He shook his head,

Corporate rate cuts: Maybe not this year, after all. Bloomberg reports that House Republicans have greater interest in reanimating expired tax breaks and changing the international tax system. What about cutting the corporate tax rate and the possible effect on small businesses? House Ways &

Congress is in recess and the Daily Deduction will post Mondays until it reconvenes. We’ll be back to our regular schedule on April 13. Taxpayers: How are IRS budget cuts affecting you? You can find out on Wednesday from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen at a TPC event at the Brookings Institution .

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t shut down, but… fallout remains over the President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and their effect on low-income tax breaks. Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch wants the Administration to say how many immigrants protected from deportation

The IRS is unable to do right by taxpayers, says the National Taxpayer Advocate. In its annual report to Congress , the in-house IRS watchdog finds that the agency’s budget cuts have eroded taxpayer service , especially for low-income taxpayers. At the same time the lack of effective administrative

The White House plans to release its budget on February 2. It would be the first time since 2010 that the Administration would meet the deadline for the roll-out. The Hill reports that the OMB hopes such timeliness will restore some discipline to an old and broken-down process . Broken down perhaps

Have Obama’s tax policies reduced income inequality? TPC has some new data, but the answer depends on who you compare him to. Relative to George W. Bush, who pushed major tax cuts for high-income households, Obama has reduced inequality. But compared to Bill Clinton, his policy is pretty standard

Did banks help a hedge fund avoid $6.8 billion in US taxes? Yes, according to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs panel’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Its report, released in advance of this morning’s hearing, argues that “basket option structures” were designed to

As expected, the House passed more tax extenders. The House voted to make permanent $75.2 billion worth of tax breaks yesterday—small business expensing of up to $500,000 in qualifying equipment per year, and rules regarding basis adjustments to the stock of S corporations making charitable